Sin and lack of vision in house churches
Enough words, enough books, enough philosophical discussions. Time is over to do that. Now is the time to act. Last week we were in a small city in Bulgaria and during one of the meetings I said, “Holy Spirit come”. As the Holy Spirit came on the group demons started to manifest. As the fear of the Lord was on that meeting, little girls began to cry because they heard something real. A massive big man came across from outside and was angry and said, “what is this”? “Stop that here”!
Suddenly boldness of the Holy Spirit came on me and I looked into his eyes. I tell you, 3 times, I warn you of your pride. And I left him. After the meeting, I heard he went to a Bulgarian brother and asked him what he should do to repent and give his life to Jesus. So right now I want to deliver a word to the Bulgarian House Churches,
Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” Jos 3:5 ESV
I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. 2 And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. 3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Habaku 2:1-3 ESV
I strongly advise you to act on these 2 verses. How can you act on them? Take time in your groups to react. The best way is to go into prayer with these 2 verses. Holy Spirit, what does it mean for us?
Joshua 3:5. Joshua speaks of it being time to cross the river Jordan. I strongly believe Home Churches in Bulgaria are about to cross a river and go into the promised land. The Lord spoke again to Joshua and He said, “consecrate the people because I will do miracles tomorrow.
There are massive, massive miracles ahead of you. When I was in the small town, I sat in a congregation there and suddenly the Holy Spirit spoke to me strongly and He said, “ The House Churches in the coming days, as wonderful as it is, every one of us has to prepare to cross the river Jordan and we need to desperately sanctify and consecrate ourselves to the Lord in a new way”.
I want to be very frank with you my friends. Many good people have come to Bulgaria. I’ve met lovely, lovely Bulgarian brothers who are flowing in the Holy Spirit and they have told you the Word of God but your hearts are hardened. Why are your hearts and your ears hardened? It is almost funny to me; you mention a very very easy Biblical word but the ears have become so hard and the heart is so hardened that people hear a sound but they don’t understand a word. But it is not a complicated thing one is saying.
I want to be very honest with you. You are not hearing the Word of God not because the Lord is not speaking to you but because there is great sin in the House Church people. You have become independent not only from the old system, but you have become independent from the Word of God and have started to enjoy your sin.
The Lord will do mighty words and deeds among the House Churches of Bulgaria in the coming days but I call you now to repent of your sins now which are between you and God. God will do all the miracles He has promised to the House Church movement but if we live in our own flesh and selfishness we will abuse all the good things that God is going to do. That is a Call. The Word is a Call to you to do to yourself. And in Acts 3, it says that when we repent a new time of refreshing will come. Acts 3:19. Repentance is not a heavy thing. But we turn toGod to receive more Grace and times of refreshing will come once again.
So the number one word I want to the House Churches in Bulgaria is Joshua 3:5 — and because it is so important: “Then Joshua said to the people, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
The second word is from Habakkuk 2:1-3 Habakkuk was a man who searched for God and in the process it frustrated and he started to speak with God. Then he said to God. “I will stand at the watchtower and I will look out for Your Word and the answer of God is that when He will speak when He shall give a vision he will write it down on a tablet and expect that these words shall come to pass. “
“I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the rampart, and I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me and how I may reply when I am reproved. Then the Lord answered me and said, “Record the Vision and inscribe it on tablets that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time. It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it. For it will certainly come; it will not delay”. Habakkuk” 2:1-3
After sin that is the second biggest problems in the Bulgarian House Churches. There is a lack of clear vision in one group. If one group has 5 members, there are 10 visions. And with 10 visions no one is thinking about fulfilling it. Like I said at the beginning, it is talking and reading and talking and reading. But what God told Habakkuk here is you receive it and you write it down. Writing it down is already acting in the Word and then you start to develop faith and this Vision and you keep going until the Vision is fulfilled. What is most important is that there is one vision in your group. And you don’t step to look out at the watchtower for the Vision for your group until you receive the vision from God.
We here are a team from Paphos in Cyprus. And God has given me a vision for the House Church there. And for almost 2 years in every meeting we had, we spoke about this vision. Very often we reminded ourselves of the vision we had. If you want to read that vision just go to rapidchurchplanting.net and we have posted our vision there. It is very important that you repeat the vision you have for your group very often.
At Harvard University they made a study and they found out that people, every month, they forgot to remember their own vision. A vision is a bit like having petrol in the car. Every one of us knows that a car can drive when there is enough petroleum in it. Everyone knows that we have to
Check the petrol in the car and fill it up. And it is the same with a vision. We have to remind ourselves and the group constantly about the vision we have.
My friends, I want to be very honest with you. And please forgive me for being very direct, maybe because I am a German. Very often I have heard Germans are very difficult somehow. Why does your group not have a real vision? The answer is very simple. Because you have stopped to receive leadership. What is the noblest task of a leader? A leader is not someone to dominate the group. The noblest task of a leader is to remind those he is leading about the vision constantly. To radiate that vision constantly.
Every day when I get up I go to the Holy Spirit and I dream with the Holy Spirit about that dream He has given me that I am filled with the vision. And then when I step out and meet people, of course, there are problems. The question is whether the vision shapes me or the problems outside that shape me. I dream in the Holy Spirit and I tell Him what you have given I want to cherish it. I want to honor and dream about this vision. The Holy Spirit gives me wisdom and makes it practical. I can not be satisfied only to have a vision. But the Holy Spirit gives me a goal for the next 3 months. Holy Spirit, I don’t want to do it only out of my flesh. Give me this little whisper that I have the goal for the next week, the next 3 weeks. How to make it practical? Yes Holy Spirit, I am weak and I am proud of that and I know that when I dream with you Holy Spirit because you will make a reality of my dream
I can give you my personal testimony. I have told people the most crazy things I have received from God. Over the last year, the Holy Spirit has proven once and once again not nonsense what I have received. Sometimes it took a long time to dream with the Holy Spirit before it became a reality. But over and over again the Holy Spirit made reality over words He has spoken to me.
My friend, I want to be very honest with you. Why do you give up so easy on the Words God has spoken to you? The cry of God right now is to go over the Jordon rivet and plant home churches strategically all over Bulgaria. How to do that? In Antioch, there were no Apostles. There were only Prophets and teachers. It was the first Church where they put down racism. And they embraced the heathens and said you can become Christians as well.
From the Bible, we know that the Church, the Ecclesia is founded on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. That’s what the Bible says. But unfortunately, in Antioch there was no Apostle. So what did they do? That was a call to action and a call to prayer. The teachers and the prophets and maybe some other people, they started together to pray earnestly and they didn’t only pray but they wanted to make clear to Hod that they were very serious and that is why they started to fast even as a group. It was not only individual prayer but corporate fasting, corporate prayer, corporate searching of God. And the Holy Spirit was so pleased.
This kind of prayer is a birthing station. Bulgaria desperately needs new babies. Bulgaria desperately needs new house churches where few people are won. If you start to pray corporately in an earnest way and if you start to fast and search for God, completely new things will be born. What was born in Antioch, suddenly the Holy Spirit spoke, “single out Barnabas and Paul and send them out as Apostles”.
I want to encourage you to seek God in your group. That will impact to you this Apostolic DNA. I encourage you that this Apostolic DNA can work together with the Prophetic and you add the Pastoral and the Teaching and the Evangelistic element that is needed according to Ephesians 4 which I encourage you to read.
And when you are praying, why are you not taking a white paper sheet and as you are listening to the Holy Spirit? What is the vision for our group? And today what will we do in this group and the second thing is that we seek after this Apostolic and Prophetic DNA. And the third thing we will do is that we will repent of our sins.
My friends, I ask you strongly not to have hardened ears. I ask you strongly not to close your heart. Repent, seek God, and start to accept the God-given leadership in your groups. And times of refreshing will come to you. You will experience the miracles that are ahead of you and you will dance like we have done with Joy and worship Him. How beautiful and wonderful Jesus is and mighty things He will do. So now we close the live stream as we have decided to act together in this group on the words I have given to you and we will pray and seek the Holy Spirit.
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